Yeremia 2:20

The Lord Expresses His Exasperation at Judah’s Persistent Idolatry

2:20 “Indeed, ¹  long ago you threw off my authority

and refused to be subject to me. ² 

You said, ‘I will not serve you.’ ³ 

Instead, you gave yourself to other gods on every high hill

and under every green tree,

like a prostitute sprawls out before her lovers. ⁴ 

Yeremia 5:5

5:5 I will go to the leaders ⁵ 

and speak with them.

Surely they know what the Lord demands. ⁶ 

Surely they know what their God requires of them.” ⁷ 

Yet all of them, too, have rejected his authority

and refuse to submit to him. ⁸ 

[2:20]  ¹ tn Or “For.” The Hebrew particle (כִּי, ki) here introduces the evidence that they had no respect for him.

[2:20]  ² tn Heb “you broke your yoke…tore off your yoke ropes.” The metaphor is that of a recalcitrant ox or heifer which has broken free from its master.

[2:20]  ³ tc The MT of this verse has two examples of the old second feminine singular perfect, שָׁבַרְתִּי (shavarti) and נִתַּקְתִּי (nittaqti), which the Masoretes mistook for first singulars leading to the proposal to read אֶעֱבוֹר (’e’evor, “I will not transgress”) for אֶעֱבֹד (’e’evod, “I will not serve”). The latter understanding of the forms is accepted in KJV but rejected by almost all modern English versions as being less appropriate to the context than the reading accepted in the translation given here.

[2:20]  ⁴ tn Heb “you sprawled as a prostitute on….” The translation reflects the meaning of the metaphor.

[5:5]  ⁵ tn Or “people in power”; Heb “the great ones.”

[5:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “the way of the Lord.”

[5:5]  ⁷ tn Heb “the judgment [or ordinance] of their God.”

[5:5]  ⁸ tn Heb “have broken the yoke and torn off the yoke ropes.” Compare Jer 2:20 and the note there.